Sunday, May 30, 2010

,,,today at Mass I picked upo a leaflet about City events to mark Corpus Christi. On Friday, 4th June, there is Mass at Corpus Christi Church, Maiden Lane at 7pm followed by a Eucharistic Procession to Notre Dame de France in Leicester Place, just off Leicester Square. I'm going to go to that.

It's all part of "Spirit in the City" which is run by West End Catholic churches. St Patrick's, Soho Square, is currently being refurbished, so the activities are spread out around the other churches.

Saturday, May 29, 2010

...I was reading a feature about the Carthusian Martyrs, in the latest edition of OREMUS, magazine of Westminster Cathedral, there was a knock at the front door. It was a neighbour, delivering a parcel that had arrived yesterday while I was out. A big packet of handbills fpr the Martyrs Walk on Sunday 20th June. We meet at St Sepulchre's churchyard, opposite the Old Bailey (nearest tube: St Paul's) at 1.30 for 2pm.From there we will be walking along the hallowed Tyburn Way, in the footsteps of the Martyrs, stopping at the church of St Anselm and St Cecilia for prayers, and finishing at Tyburn Convent for Benediction. There will be opportunities for confession at Tyburn, and a blessing and investitute of the Brown Scapular at at St Anselm and St Cecilia's.

No need to book, just turn up. Wear comfortable shoes and suitable clothjing - we'll be walking whatever the weather!

We need the inspiration and the intercession of our martyrs today - there are tough times ahead for Christians in Britain.

Thursday, May 27, 2010

...on a script of a book initially begun over a decade ago. It made me realise just how much has changed. Social attitudes are so much more tense, everyday relationships less relaxed, words and gestures and statements are charged with new and often nastier meanings, there is a greater sense of sexual innuendo. Above all, children, especially adolescents, have changed: this is noticeable when you are among some of them in a large random group - for example on public transport - where extreme anger over trivial things, routine use of obscenities, and inability to articulate sensitive or mildly complex ideas, is often evident.

... and a very interesting one: Christian Perspectives on the Financial Crash, edited by Prof Phillip Booth and published by St Paul's. It was launched on Wednesday night with a packed gathering at the Institute of Economic Affairs in Lord North Street. Among the contributors is Abbot Chrisopher Jamison of Worth Abbey, who spoke extremely well. This is a really interesting examination of the underlying ethical causes of the current financial problems, and ideas for the way forward basedon Christian social thinking. It tackles issues like usury, the provision of credit, honesty, bank bailouts and so on.

The launch brought together a lot of people with creative and interesting ideas. I chatted to Francis Davis of the Las Casas Institute, Daniel Johnson of Standpoint magazine, and of course to Philip Booth the author of the book...it was particularly relevant to be tackling these economic and social issues just as the new Parliament had begun its session - much discussion and a sense of urgency. A recognition that the underlying moral and human problems of our country, and Western society in general, are at the core of things and that to talk as if the issues at stake were just economic ones is to miss the point...

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

The new Govt will not get anywhere unless it roots its policies in an acceptance of the centrality of marriage and family life as the foundation of our community and the common good. All efforts to cut crime, improve basic literacy, reduce public vandalism and drunkeness, foster social cohesion, and enable people to cope with economic difficulties, will founder without this.

While on the subject of Westminster: earlier this week, I passed the Houses of Parliament en route to a meeting in Victoria Street. There was a barrier across the road leading down towards Millbank, and with the current encampment in Parliament Square making the whole place looking like a rather unsuccessful pop festival, I thought the closure of the road might be connected with that, and asked what what was happening. "Nothing untoward Madam, just the State Opening", the policeman told me, and indeed today's papers show the usual stately scene - ermine robes, Queen in crown and cloak, mace, deferential chaps in knee-britches and wigs, the lot. I'm glad it's still going on, and the cameras seem to have avoided focussing on the extraordinary background scenes and concentrated on the stateliness within the Parliament building.

It's good that Britain can still manage to achieve a proper State Opening (amazing, actually, that this wasn't abolished along with so much else, in the last 13 years). But the current messy protesters and campers in Parliament Square do make us look ridiculous. We're all for freedom of speech, and indeed an end to the war as their banners proclaim...but they are not contributing to anything very creative or useful by turning one of the most important squares of Europe into a squalid dump. They aren't really convicning anyone of anything by putting up makeshift sleeping accomodation on the lawn and turning their backs on us all as they attend to the neccessarily messy domestic tasks that such a campsite requires.

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Monday, May 24, 2010

...does the official team appointed by our Bishops to organise the papal events this September think that anyone will benefit by making attendance at these very restricted and telling us we must all stay at home and watch on telly? Latest news is that all events are to be comparatively small in size and ticket-only, and that this is being done for "health and safety" reasons. How ridiculous!

Pope Benedict XVI is visiting Britain. We want to see him and cheer him - we want this to be a community event, to share it all together. It's all wrong - terribly wrong - to tell Catholics to stay privately at home and watch the Pope on TV! It's the exact antithesis of everything that Catholoics believe about community, and being part of a Church, and doing things together.

The Pope isn't a celebrity - he's our Holy Father, and he's coming to our coutry, and we want to be with him at Mass!

We want to be able to get together, and travel in good numbers to the great events, and show our fellow countrymen how much we love and value our Faith, and what its message means for us all...WE DON'T WANT TO SIT AT HOME AND WATCH AS IF THIS WAS A SOAP OPERA!!

As for healthnsafety - good heavens, does this mean that we can never again gather in crowds to cheer the Queen, to celebrate in the Mall on a Royal occasion, to watch fireworks in November, to see in the New Year in Trafalgar Square, or to do any of the great traditional things that we've been doing, in vast numbers, throughout all our lifetimes?

Dear Bishops, you've been had - tell the public authorities that there must be at least one event at which ordinary Catholics can gather to greet and cheer their Holy Father, that the nation employs policemen precisely to ensure that such events run smoothly, that it is not remotely difficult to plan and arrange, and that if the Portugese can arrange such things, the British can.

...to the CTS office with a great stack of children's essays about the Pope, in the project run by the Assn of Catholic Women - we'll be mailing out prizes in a couple of weeks and I had to sort out arrangements, help design certificates, etc. The CTS is generously providing a range of beautiful prizes: it is a delight to browse their latest catalogue. I am especially pleased by the beautiful new book by Amy Wellborn, with the H. Father's talks to First Communion children...

On to the Westminster diocesan archives office where I met Marcus Grodi, currently in London doing some historical research. It was good to catch up and to swap news and views - his "Journey Home" programme on EWTN is great.

Summer weather brings new fashion note: current young female fad in London seems to be leggings topped with a short smock. This can look rather charming, or not, depending on how plump the wearer is. Defnitely preferable to very tight spaghetti-strap top with lots of bra-strap showing.

...a new book about mystic Marthe Robin by Martin Blake. V. interesting, and it explains her role in the development of the New Movements in the Church in recent years. In particular, she was responsible for the foundation of the Foyers of Charity, which are now thriving across FRance and elsewhere. We need one in Britain.

Saturday, May 22, 2010

...in Norfolk in May. The first really warm sunny weekend of the year, the leaves thick and lush and green on the trees, bluebells misty in the woods as pilgrims made their way to Walsingham, organised by Aid to the Church in Need. The coaches left London via that messy area where ££££££millions are being spent on the Olympics, and then headed out for East Anglia. We sang hymns and said the Joyful Mysteries and the Luminous Mysteries of the Rosary on the journey, and I gave a talk about Walsingham...and then we were winding down Norfolk lanes and arriving at the shrine of Our Lady...a delight to meet friends, to take part in a glorious Mass, to kneel at the shrine and entrust worries and petitions there...during silent moments Mass in the barn church, the occasional birdsong trilled from outside where the meadows were green and beautiful under the vast Norfolk sky...inside, everyone sang the Kyrie, Gloria, Sanctus and Pater Noster with strength and faith, and Fr Martin Edwards, our ACN chaplain, preached about Pentecost, the eve of which we mark today. In the Bidding Prayers we prayed especially for the Holy Father and his visit to our country,and as Mass ended we sang "Faith of Our Fathers"...

Then a Rosary Walk through meadows down to the village, praying and singing. We followed, as all today's pilgrims now do, the old railway track, crossing a small brook and making our way down to the Friday Market and into the (new - only built about 5 or so years ago) RC church in the village where we packed in for Benediction.

There was time to potter about the village for a while afterwards, and have a proper Tea, all most agreeable. Walsingham is enchanting and we met other pilgrims, notably a parish group from St Joseph's in Dorking. The summer's pilgrimages are just beginning - there is a special one for grandparents and grandchildren on July 24th, which seems a delightful idea. The village is a joy, though I was sad to see that there seemed fewer shops than on my last visit, and one of the pubs has closed. (Lots of pubs are vanishing across Britain, along with Post Offices and public libraries, and with them whole chunks of our community lives, and it's horrid).

Are you praying about the Papal visit? Have you joined in the Spiritual Bouquet? Urged friends to do so?

... yesterday to launch a book on philosophy by Australian author John Young. Find out more about the book by clicking here and scrolling down to look for "The Scope of Philosophy".

A warm evening, and drinks in a pleasant Chelsea house and garden , with lots of talk and people lingering late. John Young spoke very well and opened up the whole subject of philosophy - we found ourselves talking about things like natural law, the importance of truth, and the relationship between faith anmd reason, all rather Ratzinger- and Woytila-ish. It was the first summery event that I have attended, and it went well.

Today I had the pleasure of supper with John and we talked of many things - notably of the Harry Potter novels, of which he is an enthusiast - I warmly share his view that their message is entirely positive and that the books have done much good in nourishing a generation. I like the happy message about family life (the Weasleys), the call to sacrifice and courage in a good cause, the rallying together of allies against an evil foe...and I like the fact that the books are fat and are a good read, that they demand attention over a long period, and that they offer whole new words like Quidditch which then become part of the young readers' lives.

We also talked theology, Mulieris Dignitatem, women in the New Testament, the relationship between faith and culture, the significance of myths and fairy tales, the wrongfulness of Jansenstic trends in Catholic thinking, and more...

I am off early tomorrow morning (Sat) to Walsingham, joining a traditional pilgrimage organised by Aid to the Church in Need...

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

...I made my first visit to the shrine of Our Lady of the Taper in Wales, and loved it. Subsequently, we visited as a family during a seaside holiday in Wales. The devotion to Our Lady of the Taper is an old one, and goes right back into distant Welsh history...it carries resonances of Christ as the Light of the World, and Mary brings that light to us...

I've just seen on the website about the Papal visit to Britain that the statue of Our Lady of the Taper is to be brought to Westminster so that the Holy Father can honour Our Lady under this ancient title...an excellent idea. BTW, have you added your prayers yet to the Spiritual Bouquet being offered to the Holy Father? Hurry: do it here.

...the Sion Manning girls school in London to give a series of journalism workshops to the pupils. All part of a project sponsored by Tamezin magazine. Exhausting, but fun, and well worth while.

While on the subject of magazines, the latest Catholic World Report has a feature by Auntie on the subject of the Westminster Cathedral choir school...if you love London, beautiful liturgy, and Catholic traditions, you'll enjoy it...

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

June 20th. Martyrs' Walk. Be there!!! Details here, at the Continuity Movement website. Come on your own, or with a group of friends. This is a glorious opportunity to celebrate our Faith, enjoy London in good company, learn some history, and pray for Britain in the run-up to the Papal visit...

And: I recently worked on a project for young people with a Brother from the excellent Community of St John - they now have a base in London - and he tells me about their wonderful summer programme which includes camping in the French Alps. It looks terrific. More info here.

I am hugely impressed with the Brothers of St John - this is thriving new Order which exudes joy and faith andlooks set to take the message of Christ to the generations of the 21st century. They communicate with simplicity and a sense of bringing something that is true and authentic - do follow up and find out more.

Also: August 6th-8th. Evangelium conference, for young Catholic adults, sp[onsored by the CTS. It's at the Oratory School, near Reading - the school founded by John Henry Newman. A magnificent setting in the Thames Valley, and it's an excellent conference which brings together a good crowd each year...

And looking way ahead, just note Saturday Nov 6th, which is the annual Towards Advent Festival, and not to be missed.

...made his home at Maryvale immediately on becoming a Catholic and leaving Oxfordshire. Today, Old Oscott House where he lived - and to which he gave the name Maryvale - is a Catholic study centre, offering graduate and post-graduate degree courses for students, and training for parish catechists and others.

People who study at Maryvale love it - you somehow encounter Newman there not only in his hand-written notes (still on display along with various other items in the hallway)but in the atmosphere of study and friendship, and unpretentious Catholic talk, and prayer in the chapel which is absolutely at the heart of the house literally and metaphorically...Maryvale friendships are centred on ideas and values and a sense of common purpose, and reverberate with good humour and shared experiences...

So when a local Maryvale graduate and I met and got talking, things hummed very enjoyably...and today we ran a coffee-morning at her house, inviting people for coffee and cake and a short talk about Maryvale...and we've raised a nice little sum, which, together with the results of a further event, planned for a London venue on Thursday evening, we'll be sending to Maryvale.

Want to join in? Why not do a course at Maryvale? Or help to finance some one else to do one? Or donate to help ensure that the house keeps in good shape? (It's old. Quite apart from helping Maryvale with its good educational work, your funds will help to cherish a fine old English house and all its history)...

...a fund-raising event for Maryvale. A book launch. A meeting of the Association of Catholic Women in connection with our nationwide Schools RE Project, in which thouands of children have written about the Pope...

And, looking ahead, an event I've been asked to mention: Sunday June 27th at the Birmingham Oratory. A special Day organised by the international charity Aid to the Church in Need on the theme "The Light of the World". Come and hear about the challenges facing Christians in different parts of the woerld - and how you can help. MOre info from: www.acnuk.org/birmingham or look here.

Monday, May 17, 2010

....that over the past decade the number of Catholics in the world has grown by 11 per cent? Nor did I.Get info here. Chief growth, of course, has been in Africa and Asia. Numbers in Europe have remained stable. There are more than a billion Catholics worldwide, and numbers are still rising. About one sixth of the world's population is Catholic. The number of priests has risen significantly in the past decade, from from 405,178 in the year 2000, to 408,024 in 2007 (last year for which figures are available)and the trend is still upwards.

Sunday, May 16, 2010

...beautiful liturgy, Vide Aqua, huge congregation as always. They are having a special Holy Hour every Friday during May in reparation for child-abuse, along with many churches across the country.

Information beginning to emerge re details of the Papal visit. Read Auntie's take on the subject here. I certainly hope to go to some of the events. If you are one of Auntie's many overseas readers, and have any love or care for Britain, please join us in keeping this Papal visit in your prayers. It could do so much good, and is happening at such a strange time in our history when the Church has come under so much attack...

...to a big South London school to be part of a day dedicated to presenting the Christian vision of love, sex, and relationships - hard work, but well worth while, I think. Many of the young people said this was the first time they had heard the facts and information we were giving.

Then on Saturday to Chelsea, to speak to a delightful group of parents of First Communion children at this thriving and beautiful church which is packed every Sunday and which has good-sized weekday congregations too. Then on to Surrey to join a family team assisting at a house-moving: everyone had rallied round to carry furniture, dismantling and re-assembling beds and bookcases to carry them to the new house, and ferrying books across in wheelbarrows, and so on. Then, with the new home taking shape, a lively session over a takeaway meal, remembering old films and singing their theme tunes, followed by more music until a late hour...

Much talk, of course, about the Election and its aftermath. Auntie's chief pleasure, thus far, in the new Govt is something that she notes that also registered well with others... As the car drew up in Downing Street, bringing the new Prime MInister and his wife from Buckingham Palace, David Cameron got out, and walked round to the other side of the car and opened the door for his wife to alight and then escorted her to the pavement, where he made his speech.

I know, I know. Just Etonian charm and good manners. But noted, and enjoyed - and wouldn't it be nice if it was imitated?

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

...and I looked on the Internet to see what he was saying and doing. His words at the prayer vigil this evening are beautiful. Read on...

"All of you, standing together with lighted candles in your hands, seem like a sea of light around this simple chapel, lovingly built to the honour of the Mother of God and our mother, whose path from earth to heaven appeared to the shepherd children like a way of light. However, neither Mary nor we have a light of our own: we receive it from Jesus. His presence within us renews the mystery and the call of the burning bush which once drew Moses on Mount Sinai and still fascinates those aware of the light within us which burns without consuming us (cf. Ex 3:2-5). We are merely a bush, but one upon which the glory of God has now come down. To him therefore be every glory, and to us the humble confession of our nothingness and the unworthy adoration of the divine plan which will be fulfilled when “God will be all in all” (cf. 1 Cor 15:28). The matchless servant of that plan was the Virgin full of grace: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord: let it be done to me according to your word” (Lk 1:38).

Dear pilgrims, let us imitate Mary, letting her words “Let it be done to me” resound in our lives. God ordered Moses: “Take off your shoes, for the place on which you stand is holy ground” (Ex 3:5). And that is what he did: he would put his shoes back on to free his people from slavery in Egypt and to guide them to the promised land. This was not about the possession of a parcel of land or about the national territory to which every people has a right; in the struggle for the freedom of Israel and in the exodus from Egypt, what appears central is above all the freedom to worship, the freedom of a religion of one’s own. Throughout the history of the chosen people, the promise of a homeland comes more and more to mean this: the land is granted in order to be a place of obedience, a window open to God.

In our time, in which the faith in many places seems like a light in danger of being snuffed out for ever, the highest priority is to make God visible in the world and to open to humanity a way to God. And not to any god, but to the God who had spoken on Sinai; the God whose face we recognize in the love borne to the very end (cf. Jn 13:1) in Jesus Christ, crucified and risen. Dear brothers and sisters, worship Christ the Lord in your hearts (cf. 1 Pet 3:15)! Do not be afraid to talk of God and to manifest without fear the signs of faith, letting the light of Christ shine in the presence of the people of today, just as the Church which gives birth to humanity as the family of God sings on the night of the Easter Vigil."

...for the 2010 Catholic Women of the Year. I sit on the committee that runs this event, and every year nominations are sought from anyone and everyone who wants to put forward a name. We are looking for unsung heroines - women who serve God and neighbour, in all sorts of fields, as teachers, mothers, prison visitors, volunteers in charities and community projects, initiators of useful schemes, faithful followers of old ones...women in professional life, women caring for the elderly or sick, women doing administrative work, women artists, women in medicine, women working indoors or out of doors, women who work cheerfully and encourage others, women in politics, in business, in lots of different sorts of work. Women are nominated by friends, colleagues, neighbours. The letters that come in are touching, fascinating, sometimes amusing, sometimes suddenly haunting.

The annoncement of the CWOY for 2010 will be made in due course, after the ladies themselves have been notified. Four women are chosen each year. Last year one was Margaret Mizen, whose courage and faith following the death of her son in a random attack touched the nation. I had the privilege of meeting her and her husband Barry again the other day, and you can read the resulting interview in a forthcoming edition of the Catholic Herald...

Yesterday as we drove home, it seemed from radio reports that Britain would be getting a Labour/Lib Dem government, and there was talk of the new coalition being the "Progressive majority",(vague shades of the sort of language used in eastern Europe in the 1960s)...gloom descended.

We were busy at home,domestic things, letters, phone calls, emails...finally in the dusk I cycled off to see Mother...and when I arrived, she was watching scenes of Buckingham Palace on the TV, and David Cameron wa due to see the Queen, and kiss hands on appointment as a Conservative Prime Minsuer, with a Lib Dem coalition.

Monday, May 10, 2010

...to see, in the breakfast newspapers,pictures of the three Party leaders, in this muddling time following the Election, all attending church on Sunday morning. There they were, each so very typical that it was almost a cliche: Gordon and Sara Brown off to the Church of Scotland (lowland Scottish kirk), the Camerons to St Mary Abbotts in Kensington ( liberal High Church) and the Cleggs to Mass (he's agnostic but she's Spanish and the family are Catholic).

Meanwhile the Bogles are deep in the countryside, visiting family...I'm writing this in a small village library, internet available for 20 minutes a time. This morning a glorious walk up through the village to the edges of the moor, past the house where I was brought as a bride. A little brook runs through the garden, and my father-in-law built a small bridge across it, and if you know where to look it's marked with the date and his initials. This Autumn it will be thirty years since that big dinner-party celebrating our wedding - there's a picture in the wedding-album of me sitting by the big fireplace in my wedding-dress, with a golden sash and holding a bouquet of golden and orange flowers...

Down through the village, where the church which has a famous stumpy spire stands serenely and solidly viewing the changes of the past 30 years as it has those of the past 300 and the past 1300, and more, with unchanging stony silence. Here one can feel a sense of stability and sameness: the past thousand years have seen a lot of horrors and panics and wars and goodness knows what, so a hung Parliament doesn't seem to amount to so much...

Saturday, May 08, 2010

...cold and rainy, which is weather I rather like. Hurrying to Kensington for the annual presentation of the Tamezin Young Journalists Awards. A lovely occasion, and a great atmosphere - delightful young people, proud parents, a great buzz of chat, an upbeat feel. Journalists Cassandra Jardine and Greg Watts spoke extremely well and presented the Awards to the young writers, who had worked on various interviews. Some were really excellent, sparkling and fun. All got a useful critique of their work, and awards, and the top winners got cash prizes and opportunities for work experience in different media outlets.

Friday, May 07, 2010

...this morning, a good crowd for weekday Mass. In fact, it is always a good crowd on weekdays in this parish - but this morning was special because the parish priest had arranged an extra Holy Hour to pray, in accordance with the plan initiated by the Bishops, in reparation because of the abuse crisis. And a good number of people stayed on for the Hour to pray. It finished with Benediction. Impressive.

We are all meant to be praying and fasting on the four Fridays during May. Looking at the touching essays and projects sent in by children - yes, they are still pouring in in from across Britain - to mark the Pope's visit, makes me realise how much it means to so many Catholics and it is so crucial that it is a success.
If prayer and fasting are all part of that, well, let's pray and fast...

Election results. As I write this, I'm listening to the radio and hearing David Cameron, sounding Prime Ministerial, laying out possible plans for a Government that would require some Lib-Dem support. Gordon Brown has also spoken, but managed to sound both pompous and panicky at the same time - a mix of I'm-Prime-Minister-and-I-intend-to-stay and and er-I'll-find-a-way-of-doing-so-somehow.

It's been a strange election: at one level it looked ordinary and familiar - candidates with rosettes, volunteers putting leaflets through doors, more and mostly elderly volunteers sitting outside the Polling Booths taking voters' details as they went in, so these could be cross-referenced with the information obtained by doorstep questioning and any possible stray supportters rounded up and urged to vote. I voted, as I've done so often before, in the hall of the local Catholic primary school which also doubles as a Mass-centre on Sundays. Wooden booths, freshly-sharpened black stubby epenncils on string, and anxious local-authority people sitting at tables handing out ballot papers and checking things on lists. But somehow it all felt very different from usual - the homely and local chafed against the weirdness of the TV-domination, the moment-by-moment following of events on computers and laptops, the omnipresence of instantaneous information and opinions, the sense that major issues were being overlooked amid spin and photography and image-making.

In this, as in so much of modern Britain, there is a somehow fragile feeling - as if what is solid and reliable and functioning is at the mercy of what is transient and untested and possibly volatile. Cameron now needs to create a workable government that feels reasonably solid, and then seek a fresh mandate in a year or so that will give him the majority he really wants. Retaining Brown and getting a coalition framed around his party would be all wrong and an attempt to reverse the election result by backdoor means, a manifest injustice.

Thursday, May 06, 2010

... after Mass at Westminster Cathedral I noticed large crowds going into Archbishop's House where a major event was clearly taking place. It turned out to be a big gathering to launch some fund-raising for the Papal visit.

Increasingly, with the nasty campaigns launched by Richard Dawkins and co, the mood among Catholics is upbeat and united: we want the Pope to come, we want to cheer him and greet him, we are keen to see and hear him, we believe that he has a great message for Britain.

Monday, May 03, 2010

...is the seminary for the diocese of Westminster, and stands on the site of St Thomas More's garden in Chelsea. I had taken took a small group of youngsters on a walk there on Friday, but the big day was on Sunday, with our main Catholic History Walk. We were a good crowd, some 60-70 of us, and walked along by the river, with talks on the history as we went (using a microphone, all v. efficient). The excellent sacristan at Holy Redeemer Church stepped in at the start when I was delayed, and showed everyone round the church, and then we set off to see More's statue along the Embankment in the gardens, and to explore Chelsea Old Church (v. nice team of volunteers there who showed us round and were most friendly and informative)...and then we reached the seminary,to a wonderful welcome from the Rector, a delicious tea, and a talk about Cardinal Allen and Douai and an awesome heritage...we met a good number of the current students for the priesthood, and I have to say they are an impressive bunch of men, who divided us into teams and took us round the seminary and told us its history and were a powerful boost to morale. In these days when we seem to hear so much that is gloomy about the Church, it was cheering to see the future: young, dedicated, and committed to a life of service to God. There was a moving and impressive hour of Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, culminating in Vespers and Benediction. The seminary invites parish groups to come to these times of Adoration to pray for more vocations to the priesthood and religious life...and it seems to be working!

Next event for your diary: June 20th, the Martyrs' Walk. Starts 1.30pm for 2pm at the Old Bailey - we are gathering in the churchyard of St Sepulchre's-without-Newgate. We'll be walking all the way to Tyburn, so wear comfortable shoes. Bring your rosary. We'll stop at St Anselm and St Cecilia's in Holborn and we'll reach Tyburn in time for Benediction and tea at about 5 o'clock.

...for Christians who uphold the traditional teachings on sexual morality.

Today's news reports that a policeman overheard a Christian speaker telling some one in the street that homosexual activity was sinful. The preacher, a Mr Dale McAlpine, has been charged for causing "harrassment, alarm or distress" after the policeman, a "community support officer" heard him listing homosexuality as among sins listed in the Scriptures. The preacher has said he did not mention it when listing various sins in his sermon, but mentioned it in a discussion with a passing shopper, saying it was contrary to the word of God. The police say that he said it in a voice loud enough to be overheard. He is now awaiting trial.

Of course, we do not know what the preacher said. Perhaps he failed to make the distinction between an inclination towards homosexuality and participation in homosexual acts. But the scene is a worrying one.

Will we risk arrest when we pass on the teaching of the Church?

The Catechism of the Catholic Church states:

"2357. Homosexuality refers to relations between men or between women who experience an exclusive or predominant sexual attraction toward persons of the same sex. It has taken a great variety of forms through the centuries and in different cultures. Its psychological genesis remains largely unexplained. Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that "homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered." They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved.

2358. The number of men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible. This inclination, which is objectively disordered, constitutes for most of them a trial. They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. These persons are called to fulfill God's will in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord's Cross the difficulties they may encounter from their condition.

2359. Homosexual persons are called to chastity. By the virtues of self-mastery that teach them inner freedom, at times by the support of disinterested friendship, by prayer and sacramental grace, they can and should gradually and resolutely approach Christian perfection."

Saturday, May 01, 2010

...that a judge decreed that Christians have no right to have their religious beliefs respected at work, an opportunity to ponder on the message of St Thomas More.

Yesterday evening I led a Catholic History Walk for young people. This was an extra Walk organised by the leaders of a Confirmation group at a major London parish. I had gladly agreed to do it after being approached following the publicity for the general History Walks organised by Continuity/Miles Jesu. Gathering round the statue of More along the Embankment at Chelsea and showing the young people how he would have travelled up-river to Westminster for sessions of Parliament, and later when taken to the Tower, there was a sudden great sense of the great reality of it.

What is happening to our country at the moment? It is now a place where a Christian can lose his job because he was employed as a marriage counsellor and wanted to do this and not to get involved with supporting homosexual relationships. Insisting that he change his beliefs or lose his job cannot by any measure be regarded as fair.

The young people began the Walk by having that oh-yeah-so-why-is-this-important-anyway? look which seems obligatory among adolescents: any sort of enthusiasm for a well-planned project is sooooo uncool. But they sparked up a bit as we progressed, and despite rain and a chill wind they held candles and joined in prayers as dusk fell and we gathered around More's plaque at Allen Hall, the Westminster diocesan seminary which stands on the site of his garden. The wind blew out our fragile flames, but they listened as I told them about heroic priests facing torture and death to keep the Faith alive in times past, and about this is the same Faith that has been passed on to us, from the time of Christ, right down to us in London today...and then the voices joined in the Our Father...

...is the theme of this year's Schools RE Project run by the Association of Catholic Women. And hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of entries are now pouring in from children at Catholic schools across Britain. We have teams of judges and the essays all have to be delivered to them. Yesterday I arrived home to find a crate and two huge boxes on my doorstep, and an anxious email informing me that a great many more essays would arrive tomorrow. Today, with some difficulty, I took a great case to the Chairman's house in London where there is more space than here at Bogle Towers...every single essay is being read, and the winners and runners-up will get prizes donated by the Catholic Truth Society, plus trophies. A number of Certificates of Merit will also be awarded. It is all a marathon task.

The children were asked to find out about the Papacy. Who was the first Pope? Who appointed him ? What is the name of the present Pope, and what is his task? Why is he called the "Servant of the Servants of God"? They were also invited to write a prayer for the Pope. These tend to reveal local loyalties. "Dear God, please look after Pope Bennidict when he comes to England. I hope he comes to Manchester". "Dear God, help the Pope in his work when he comes to Scotland to see us. He is meeting the Queen first."

Of course some children have just downloaded material from the Internet ("The 2005 conclave elected Joseph Ratzinger following the traditional procedures...") but others have written lengthy essays giving their own thoughts. "Pope Benedict is proberly very bisy getting redy to come to England". Some have written letters to the Pope, one adding a sad note saying she hadn't had a reply (and I think it is feeble of the Vatican not to have some volunteers to deal with such letters - couldn't something be organised?) One said that if the Holy Father had time, he'd be most welcome at her house and her Gran would give him a nice tea.